Sunday Birthmonth Treats

My family always treats me for my Birthday month.  It was my Ate's turn today.  We went to Phoenix Court, Bellevue Hotel in Alabang.  I was with Gilly, Ate's daughter and Tita Portia.  The place was packed!

Our lunch menu:

Chilled Jellyfish with Century Egg & Honey Pork



 Assorted dumplings:
Steamed Prawn Dumpling

Steamed Mixed Vegetable Dumpling



Steamed Pork & Shrimp Siomai



Wintermelon Soup with Seafood



Hot & Sour Soup





Pan Fried Beef  Tenderloin Black Pepper



Sweet and Sour Fish Fillet



Sauteed Pork Rib with Barbecue Sauce



Braised Bean Curd with Chinese Mushroom and Oyster Sauce



Green Vegetables with two Kinds of Eggs



Sauteed Bokchoy with Garlic



Yang Chow Fried Rice



Chilled mango Sago



Almond Jelly



There was so much food, we were not able to finish the whole lot!  We went to Manila Memorial Cemetery in Sucat after lunch to visit my Dad and my Grandma whose death anniversaries fall on August and also to say hello to my Mom... my birthday moment with her.

You think my day was over?  Not by a long shot.  Tita Portia and I did not want to eat dinner at home so we went to our favorite Filipino restaurant, Mesa, Greenbelt 5.

Our usual fare, Prawns in Red Egg Sauce



Manga Salad



Inihaw na Liempo



Pork Sinigang in Guava and Pineapple.



I loved the soup!  A different kind of sinigang.  Again the serving was huge, good for 4-5 people.  This time I really could not finish it so I brought home a doggy bag!  Hahaha  Not for Wriggly but for myself.

You think I am done with my gastronomical indulgences already?   Well .... lastly... I bought a Twix Ice Cream Bar from Rustan's Greenbelt.



   AAAAhhhhh .... so good but so bad because it was so sweet.

I still have two more weekends to go before my birthday weekend and both are booked already with celebrations!!!  Hahahaha How can I ever look good in my two piece bikini when I go to Boracay for my REAL birthday, huh?????  BIG EVIL GRIN!!!  :D

Glazed Sweet Potatoes

Ate's request for today's lunch was Chicken Curry with all the condiments.  I figured, the best side dish for it was Glazed Sweet Potatoes.  I looked at my Grandma's 1950's American cookbook and found a very simple recipe.

Glazed Sweet Potatoes



1 k. sweet potatoes, preferably yellow-orange in color, peeled, boiled and cut into thick strips
1 C. brown sugar
1/4 C. water
3 T. butter

Mix the water and brown sugar in a bowl.  Dip the sweet potato strips in the brown sugar solution.  Lay on an oven proof casserole dish.  Pour the remaining sugar/water.

Dot with butter.



Bake at 400 F until syrup is thick, about 20-30 minutes.  Baste the sweet potatoes every once in a while.

YUM!!!  Beats the "Minatamis na Kamote" any time.  It was sweet and so buttery!

Perfect with the Chicken Curry with the condiments.http://liasfoodjourney.blogspot.com/2010/06/chicken-curry-with-condiments.html





Hermie grilled the pork belly  http://liasfoodjourney.blogspot.com/2010/09/thai-lunch-with-friends.html for the kids and for my brother in law, he does not eat Chicken Curry.



My Ate said, they love this recipe of grilled belly the best.

Sotanghon soup for everybody.



As usual, we all enjoyed our lunch!  I was so tired and stuffed to the gills I slept for a while when my family left.  But still ...  I always look forward to our Saturday get together.

Tapsilog

I have been craving for tapsilog ever since I saw on tv the feature they had on the best tapsilog in Metro Manila.  Mariger said I should try the tapa flakes of Tapa King, she also likes Maty's.  Marianne prefers Rodic's in U.P. Diliman. 

I went to my favorite store today, Debenhams because it is the first day of the Blue Cross sale.  I get most of my clothes from there because they have big sizes... well if you call sizes 12-14 big.  I was very happy and went home with lots of loot!  Across Shangrila is EDSA Central market.  I remember the Mom of Mayette would always buy tapa from the market, if I am not mistaken from Villarubio's Meat.

I bought half a kilo to try.  As soon as I got home, I instructed Hermie to measure 125 grams of beef tapa and put in freezer bags so when I want to cook I do not have to defrost the whole batch.

It is my kind of tapa!!!



It is more salty than sweet and the meat was tender, not like beef jerky.  Maybe it was the way I cooked it?

I cut the meat across the grain into strips.  Heat the frying pan until smoking, poured cooking oil, let it heat for a while.  I used a spatula to move around the tapa strips until done.  Not overcooked because meat will still cook for a while even if you remove it from the flame.  I already know how to cook fried egg, not as pretty but .... it tasted good just the same.

Tapsilog craving?  No more!!!!

Chicken Pastel

I always thought that I have a Chicken Pastel recipe in my blog.  I was about to cook my lunch today when I discovered I do not!  It just goes to show I have  not cooked this particular dish in over a year whereas before, the least was once a month.  Hmmmm ... I wonder, why?  Mom used to like creamy and cheesy food.  It is not on the top of my list.  So maybe that is the reason why I have not eaten Pastel in a while.

But today I wanted to make Chicken Pastel with Pastry Crust.



Chicken Pastel

1 K. Chicken, cut into pieces
salt and pepper
1/2 C. butter or margarine
1 can vienna sausage, cut each sausage into 3
3 pcs. Purefoods chorizo bilbao, sliced
1 small can button mushrooms
potatoes, cubed
carrots, cubed
1 Knorr Chicken cube
1/2 C. water
1 tall can evaporated milk
green and red pepper, cut into squares
frozen green peas
1/2 bar quickmelt cheese, grated

Rub chicken with salt and pepper and let stand for 15 minutes. Melt butter in cooking pan, brown the chicken, add chorizo, followed by the potatoes, carrots, mushrooms and vienna sausage.  Then add the chicken cube, water and milk.  Stir so the milk will not curdle.  When it begins to boil, lower heat and cover for 20 minutes.

Remove the cover, add the peppers and peas.  Continue cooking for 5 minutes more.  Sprinkle grated cheese on top and turn off heat.

You can serve the pastel at this point



or you can transfer into a baking dish and top with the pastry crust.

Pastry Crust

1 1/4 C. flour
1/4 + 2 T. cold butter, cubed
1/2 t. salt
3 T. ice cold water
egg wash = 1 egg + 1 T. water, beaten

Cut the butter in the flour with salt.  Add ice water and stir with a fork.  Wrap in plastic and let it rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.  Roll out in between 2 pieces of wax paper.  Cover the baking dish, brush egg wash on top, cut slits and bake for 12-15 minutes at 425F.

The whole Chicken Pastel process from start to finish only took an hour and a half.  I really do enjoy cooking.  Good thing Mona was here for lunch, let Hermie some and was able to send food upstairs to Tita Portia.  I am not really fond of eating left overs so I make sure when I cook something that is more than one serving, I have people to feed.

Mama Sita's Kiddie Spaghetti Sauce

Whenever I see something new in the supermarket, I buy it all the time just to try how it tastes.  The other day  I saw this new product in Landmark, Mama Sita's Kiddie Spaghetti Sauce.



The recipe at the back of the foil pouch was very easy to follow.



150 g. ground beef
1/4 C. onions, chopped
salt
(The recipe says you can add celery, carrot and parsley to the meat balls.)

Form into 1 inch balls, pan fry and set aside.

Sauce

2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 C. onions, chopped
100 g. button mushrooms, sliced
Mama Sita's Kiddie Spaghetti Sauce

Saute garlic and onions.  Add the mushrooms, then the pan fried meat balls.  Pour in the sauce and simmer for 15 minutes.
 
125 g. noodles

Top with grated cheese.

Not bad for an instant spaghetti sauce!  I loved the fact that the sauce was orangey and not red.

Gilly's Brownies

My niece, Gilly, is only 11 years old and she can bake already a lot of goodies.  She even attended a Junior Masterchef class at Crowne Plaza.



She wants to enroll in another Masterchef baking class but the minimum age is 16 years old.

Her brownies recipe is so easy to follow and no need to use an electric mixer!  I know she got it from the Assumption cookbook.  Tita Portia asked me to bake for her photo shoot session tomorrow.  Instead of the usual square or rectangular baking pan, I experimented today and used the non-stick mini muffin pan, just like the brownies you can buy from S and R.

Gilly's Brownies



1 C. butter compound (Golden Crown)
3/4 C. Bensdorp cocoa powder (Cook's Exchange, Rockwell)
2 C. sugar
4 eggs
2 t. vanilla
1 C. flour
2 C. Hershey's semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Melt butter in the microwave for 1 minute.  Add the cocoa, stir well using a wooden spoon or spatula. 
Then the sugar, followed by the eggs, one at a time. 
Add the vanilla. 
Stir in the flour. 
Add the chocolate chips.

Grease the baking pan or line the muffin pan with paper.  Pour the mixture into the pan or scoop into the muffin pan.

Bake at 350 F.

25-30 minutes = baking pan
8-10 minutes = muffin pan

Cool before serving or cutting.

* If using unsalted butter, add 1/2 t. salt to the flour.

I did not grease nor use paper liners so my  first batch stuck to the bottom of the pan.



But none the less... it was still YUM!!!!  I know I am not allowed to indulge but I gave in to the temptation and ate a couple of the rejects.

This is a good recipe for children.  Barely any room for error so it will be a  breeze and they will feel so proud of themselves for baking Gilly's Brownies!

Happy Birthmonth to me!

Today is the first day of my birthday month!  It is Happy Birthday to me everyday!  It started when I was young, my Dad used to announce that the whole month of August is Lia's birthday!  Which meant ... I could do anything I like or eat anything I like!  Hahahaha  Now that I am a bit older... at the rate I am going... by the time it is the 28th... I will be like a little piglet being fattened up to be slaughtered!

I already had a birthday celebration today, August 1.  It started last year when Corry treated me for lunch.  Since then, I have been looking forward to the "Happy Birthday" everyday.

We met at Ayala Triangle for lunch after her clinic hours for the day in Makati.  I always pray for lots of kids to get sick  hahahaha  Corry said to just pray for lots of babies to be born.  I chose the restaurant, Wee Nam Kee.

I like their Steamed Chicken with all the condiments.  We ordered a combination of roast and steamed Chicken.



Chicken Rice



We also tried the Roasted Pork.



I loved the Beef Hofan! 



So flavorful and the meat was very tender.  Bad lighting but it really tasted delicious.  Worth coming back for.

For dessert, we had yoghurt at Golden Spoon.  Belgian Chocolate with Marshmallow sauce and crushed Heath English Toffee bits.



YUM!!!  Although too sweet for me since I am diabetic.



Thank you so much Corry for the first Birthday Treat of the month!!! 

A celebration is not complete without eating one of my most favorite food in the entire world!  Aside from Lechon and Pork Sinigang .... I also love TALANGKA!



I was in Landmark Supermarket this afternoon for my weekly shopping and checked out the fish section.  They were selling Talangka.  Even though they were not alive anymore,  I knew they were fresh because the crablets were "iced" when they were still moving  and breathing, as opposed to crabs who died on their own.

It was pure heaven!



I only bought half a kilo because I do not want to die yet.  The feeling of eating the first spoonful of talangka fat was the same as  plunging into the clear turquoise waters of Boracay.  I kid you not!  Well ... that is in my opinion but I felt the same fix or high.

I enjoyed the talangka, my fingers were orange because of the stain from the fat, my dipping sauce was just kalamansi with rock salt and best of all .... I had it all to myself!

There are times you just want to savor something on your own ... well this was time that I did not want guests whether family or friends.  Hahahaha I know ... it was greedy of me  but hey .... It's the first day of my  Birthday month.

Happy Birthday to me everyday!